Derringer Shots #2: Bonds blackball, overpaid UCLA coach, Boom Gone, Bynum's worth

Bonds blackballed


Bonds is the home run leader with 762 home runs. Last year he had 28 home runs in 340 at bats . He made the all-star team. His 2007 OBP of .480 was the highest of anybody with that many at bats. The next closest player to that was David Ortiz with .445.

The player's union filed a grievance, but clearly nobody cares. I can't defend Bonds either. His vitriol and contempt for fans, players, managers and everybody who breathed has caught up to him. Nobody in their right mind believes that Bonds did not take steroids and then he compounded the problem by lying to prosecutors and the fans. He has robbed the game of it's dignity.

UCLA basketball coach, Ben Howland signs seven-year $15 million contract extension


That is just sick. There needs to be a cap on all this madness. Is anybody else of seeing coaches make millions while the players play for free. And no I am not advocating that college players get paid. I am saying that college coaches should coach because they have a passion for it and not because they are riding a gravy train.

It's Ben Howland's "dream job" and maybe if he were making a modest sum he'd keep at it. So let him then. I remember my law professor telling me that the highest paid employee of the 46 University of California and Cal State campuses was no a president but the UCLA basketball coach. This is another example of our society gone mad. STOP THE MADNESS! And I do not mean March Madness.

Brett Myers sent down to minors but that's not the real story


Brett Myers was sent down to the minors after posting a 5.84 E.R.A. and a 1.56 WHIP and a league leading 24 home runs allowed.. Those type of numbers are bad, but usually a team will stick with a seven-year veteran that is 28 years-old and should be in the prime of his career. A team might make up an injury and put him on the 15 day disabled list. Or they will send him down to the bullpen to get tuned up. This would make sense since Myers looks to still have OK stuff, having posted 88 strikeouts and logging 101 2/3 innings this year.

This is really about the Phillies finally getting him out of the clubhouse because their executive management did not have the guts to get rid of Brett Myers for striking his wife outside of Fenway Park in 2006 or for being verbally abusive to a reporter in 2007. SHAME ON THE PHILLIES MANAGEMENT! But still shame on Myers in the first place. "Boom. Out of here," Mr. Myers.


Keeping Andrew Bynum worth at least two championship rings?


There is no doubt that Andrew Bynum has arrived. He is now a legitimate 20-10 (points and rebounds) guy and his body has matured. But is he worth giving up the Larry O'Brien Trophy? Elton Brand is a 20-10 guy and he has not made it out of the first round of the playoffs. Kevin Garnett was a 20-10-5 (points, rebounds, assists) for years and he never made it past the Conference Finals until he joined the Celtics this year.

The point is that the Lakers would almost definitely be the champions and looking to make it back-to-back championships had they traded Bynum for Garnett. The Celtics traded their 20-10 guy Al Jefferson and now they have the jewelry.

Derringer Shots #1: A special soldier, Venus overpowering Four Names

Shots Heard is introducing a new feature. I've come to the realization that not every notable happening in sports deserves 300 words. We are a highlights society. Do not worry though Shots Heard readers I'll still give you the meat when the time is right.

On the other hand, we do have that penchant for highlights, hold the blather. I love writing in the AP style and thoroughly giving you the here's the A plus B and therefore C and even occasionally taking you deeper into the deep Pythagorean realms of sports. But as a practical matter, I do not always have time to write everything and you do not always have time to read everything, right?

Also this allows me a way to run on instinct a little more. Part of the reason I created this site was to present an outlet for my usually educated sports opinions. But it was meant to be in a way that was not guarded and beholden to no outside interests. Unfortunately, my desire to be respected for my journalistic output has made me understandably sanitize my work (somewhat). Derringer Shots will allow me to spew out my thoughts in more of a Budweiser Hot Seat fashion.

Blindness won't deter special forces soldier

Like it or not, war is a sport even though the stakes are much higher. There's strategy and there's the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. So all of our combat troops in the field are athletes, including Captain Ivan Castro who lost his sight from mortar fire in Iraq.

Nobody would blame Captain Castro if he packed it up and quit. Out of the other 100 blinded soldiers in Iraq, 98 of them understandably did. But Captain Castro plans to keep serving as a special forces operative in the field. That is an athlete!

Wimbledon: Venus Williams hits 127 mph on the radar gun

Venus Williams ended her fourth round match with Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez with a 127 mph ace. As impressed as I am with that feat, I have to ask why does her opponent need four names in her surname? Someone give her a class in marketing 101. The greats are almost always known by succinct names. For instance, Jordan, Pele, Tiger, Ruth, Montana, etc.

But back to the 127 mph serve. Let's hope that the incredibly fast serve is a result of the anomaly that is the amazon William sisters. We do not want to lose those great volleys that have helped make women's tennis the only sport that actually out sells men's sports. Anyhow, the next generation of hot tennis players will probably keep the status-quo.

Actually tennis has something that David Stern is hopelessly trying to manufacture. Synergy. When men's tennis does well, so does women's tennis and visa versa. That is why the men and women play at that same time at these grand slam events like Wimbledon. Meanwhile, NBA fans gnash their teeth when they think that built into their ticket prices are the costs of subsidizing the terrible WNBA.

Look for more Derringer Shots

This was the warm-up for future segments. Future Derringer shots will likely cover more topics and be more brief in nature.